Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

you leinster guys are hilarious…

he's the only weak link out of fridays 23.

but circle the wagons.

unfortunately I am am massive furlong fan, and I want him to win the Euro cup..

I think some are so overly or unrealistically positive that it invites negativity for a sense of balance , particularly where it’s a cross reference to Crowley

I mean, this isn't exactly true either. There's literally a post in the Leinster thread today about how Prendergast is the best 10 in Ireland "and it's not even close".

Which has picked up some likes along the way including from, ironically… For Petes Sake.

In what way is that not "overly or unrealistically positive"?

You think I couldn't produce the same for Crowley?

Or even some that are "overly or unrealistically positive" about Prendergast?

There's nonsense posted from both sides. Your suggestion that it's only coming from one direction is… lets go with "horsesh*t".

I don't think either of them get disproportionate hatred on here; there's plenty of non-good-faith posts to go around from all angles these days, alas. Which is why I think portraying one side as squeaky-clean and the other as purveyors of "horsesh*t" is just plain wrong.

I also don't understand why you think anyone is obligated to "call out" anyone. Or why you need to use such emotive language; what kind of reaction do you expect?

Imagine Prendergast has an off day from the tee and someone posted this:

Prendergast down for a 46% kick success. I thought his point of difference was his kicking?

Would that be credible? Cos that’s exactly what you’re doing.

If you had come in and said “Crowley with an unusually poor defensive performance this weekend, it’s normally his point of difference” I don’t think anyone would’ve had an issue.

The full context being that was a discussion comparing Crowley and Prendergast in that individual game. I literally said as much earlier in the thread,:

To be fair, I was responding to a request to compare them exclusively on this game.

And engaged in the discussion and gave plenty of reasoning throughout the whole thread. For example:

The place kicking, the stats bear that out. Tho Prendergast showed character to respond and convert the most difficult of his 3.

The kicking from hand is much more qualitative, naturally. But, especially early on, even Prendergast's long exit kicking looked aimless, and allowed England territory and field position. He rarely hit grass, iirc (tho I’d have to watch it back). Crowley’s had one or 2 too long also, but contestables seemed much more… contestable. Bear in mind this is one area that it was seen as Prendergast outright having the upper hand on Crowley.

That's the context. That's literally the opposite of the exact same thing. The exact same thing would've been posting a 2-liner like the following:

Prendergast down for a 33% kick success. I thought his point of difference was his kicking?

(Word count: 192, I'm disappointed with myself).

Sooooooooooooo. Why did Ireland form drop during this Six Nations? Players all doing well following the conclusion of said competition. Coaching and tactics would be my assessment. Defence and Attack.

My point was merely that both 10’s, Sam & Crowley, are excellent prospects, neither are perfect, neither are shocking, and performance varies game to game week to week so no clear run away winner to the balanced / unbiased viewer. No drama, and good for Irish rugby as it makes them both improved athletes